One Man's Notes on Movies and Other Life Obsessions by Chuck Wilson

July 06, 2015

The 2nd season of writer John Logan's PENNY DREADFUL is a transcendent moment in horror. So richly textured, so beautifully bloody. It made the horror fan in me absolutely giddy. This will only mean something to about five of you but the neato-keen-I'm-14-again thrill I felt reminded me not of a movie, but of reading Clive Barker's BOOKS OF BLOOD way back in 1984, or a mind-twist 2005 Joe Hill short story called "Best New Horror" (available on Kindle; please find it). Mmmm...Try this: this second season of PENNY DREADFUL (1000 times better than the first), with its insanely textured production design (hit Pause, and just LOOK), and deep respect for powerful women (real, supernatural, and "created"), and its Catholic imagery (only the fearless Eva Green could pull off that transgressive scene with the cross), as well as Logan's deep love for Draculian castles and Victorian ballrooms drenched in blood, reminded me, at varies times of Elia Kazan, Martin Scorsese, Val Lewton, Wes Anderson, and novelist Margaret Atwood (if she'd written a straight-on Gothic, which she really should.) And in the final episodes especially, you're sure to think of Dan Curtis' "Dark Shadows," because, you know, when you're doing witchery and werewolves and dungeons...a little cheesiness has to creep in, and maybe, a smart writer (and production staff) welcomes it. For me, that's the happiest thing: this year, PENNY DREADFUL was serious, goofy, gloomy FUN. (Chuck Wilson)